Recently, I put the cherry on top of my cheap Ferrari 348 — except, unlike most sundae toppings, this cherry wasn’t cheap. Still, people have paid a lot more for artwork that doesn’t look as beautiful as a $4,000 Capristo exhaust system, and the real magic happens when it’s hooked up to a Ferrari V8.
Even though I knew the amazing sound potential of this exhaust system, it was hard to justify purchasing it for my cheap, old Ferrari with nearly 100,000 miles. It’s the one thing I miss most about my dearly departed 1995 F355, which came equipped with the glorious system, and it took me weeks to decide if I should spend the money to hear the greatest noise on earth again.
After all, $4,000 could buy me another complete hooptie — but in the end, I couldn’t stop myself.
About 3 weeks after ordering, the exhaust arrived, and it really did look like a highly polished work of art. Installation with my mechanic, the Car Wizard, took less than 2 hours, and the condition of the old exhaust helped justify the change. Not only were the exhaust tips crudely welded to the muffler using generic auto parts store pipe bends, but the muffler itself had parts rattling inside it like a giant maraca. The Car Wizard suspects the catalytic converters had been replaced after falling apart, which would send chunks into the muffler.
Any regrets about spending too much money were gone the moment I started the car, as the 296 muffled voices inside my Ferrari V8 could now sing at the top of their lungs. I chose the stage 3 exhaust — the loudest possible, as it’s known for making a Ferrari sound like an F1 car. It didn’t disappoint. What was formerly a quiet and buzzy exhaust note now screamed to redline like I was passing Lewis Hamilton at the Monaco Grand Prix — except I’m not going nearly as fast as it sounds.
I celebrated my new exhaust with a few donuts in a snowy field — but I must be maturing, as I quit before something broke. My total investment into this Ferrari 348 so far is still less than a fully loaded Honda Accord, so I’m feeling pretty good about myself right now. Onward to 100,000 miles! Find a Ferrari 348 for sale
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I bet an OEM exhaust system would have been just as much if not more so why not get the loud one? Plus, when it’s on a “slow” car like this you get to enjoy the sound more instead of just for a couple seconds then hours of drone at the speed limit.